Her son Bruce added: “She would have hated old age and its prob­lems.”

At her thanks­giv­ing ser­vice her third child William summed her up by say­ing: “She loved a good thriller and in this re­spect her death and the ac­ci­dent in the plane would have fas­ci­nated her sense of drama.

“She went out with a bang and with no need to face old age and the monotony of ill­ness.

“Ac­tu­ally, Danielle died in the prime of her life but next to the man she loved and hav­ing the time of her life with lit­tle time to think of any­thing else.

“She would not have asked for more.”

Max Rip­pon has never flown since the tragedy but said he was sat­is­fied by the jury’s ver­dict.

He said: “The jury’s sum­mary was fair and suc­cinct and I am grate­ful.

“Ev­ery night I have asked my­self ‘ Could I have done things dif­fer­ently,’ but the coroner’s words re­as­sured me.

“Danielle would now want us to get on with our lives and be pos­i­tive.”

Danielle and Max reg­u­larly flew to the fam­ily apart­ment in Paris.

She is now buried in her fa­ther’s home­land in Cor­sica, where the fu­neral had taken place on Oc­to­ber 12, 2007.

A ser­vice of thanks­giv­ing had also been held for lo­cal friends at St Michael’s Church, Smar­den, on Oc­to­ber 25. The eu­logy from William was pro­vided both in English and French.